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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27374836">Gather to Say Goodbye</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/darknesscrochets/pseuds/darknesscrochets'>darknesscrochets</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rainbow Souls [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen, Reunions, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Temporary Character Death, not beta read we die like... well..., spoilers for RQG 174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:47:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>529</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27374836</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/darknesscrochets/pseuds/darknesscrochets</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Oscar Wilde dies, and then he wakes up.</p>
<p>The tip of his finger is glowing blue.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Grizzop drik Acht Amsterdam &amp; Oscar Wilde, Sasha Racket &amp; Oscar Wilde</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rainbow Souls [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1999660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Gather to Say Goodbye</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>the first fic in this series still quite in progress, but i wanted to get this out before 175 for probably obvious reasons.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Oscar Wilde dies.</p>
<p>He dies, and not in the way he would have expected: not with a bang, not with a whimper, but a cut-off scream in the middle of a forest.</p>
<p>Oscar dies, suddenly and unexpectedly, alone. Friends and shipmates scattered across the snow.</p>
<p>Oscar dies, and then he wakes up.</p>
<p>He’s spoken to enough clerics to know it’s not unusual, to end up in an… in-between sort of place, when you die. Especially those who never dedicated themselves to one thing, one deity or passion or ideal.</p>
<p>It’s where he’d always thought he’d end up. Oscar never dedicated himself to the idea of the Meritocracy the way some did. Even if he had, the last year and a half would have shaken that resolve. </p>
<p>No, he always thought he’d end up here. Wherever <em>here</em> really is.</p>
<p>Oscar looks down.</p>
<p>The tip of his finger is glowing blue; not the dark of the deep ocean that it used to be, but the lighter blue of the sky (of <em>hope</em>) that he’s gotten used to in the past year or so. Zolf’s mark, on him.</p>
<p>No one told him that your marks glow, when you die.</p>
<p>It’s possible no one knows, amongst the living, with how tight a hold the Meritocracy had on resurrection. If anyone does, it’s not likely they’re in a good position to share the information around.</p>
<p>Out of the corner of his eye, Oscar catches a glow of forest green. A color he knows, but only saw in a mirror once, a few days before everything… went wrong. </p>
<p>It’s not the only thing he sees. There’s movement, off in the distance.</p>
<p>Two forms resolve themselves out of the gloom.</p>
<p>One short. Goblin-short, with a bow and quiver at his back. The other taller, though slight for a human, pale and scarred but with more colors than he remembers ever seeing on her.</p>
<p>Grizzop and Sasha, alight with a rainbow of marks. Of souls.</p>
<p>They make their way towards him, crossing an unmeasurable distance in an amount of time that feels both infinite and immediate. Oscar smiles. Smiles a real smile, the first one not weighted down with expectations, with despair, with anything besides true pleasure, to see people he thought he would never lay eyes upon again.</p>
<p>He smiles at them both, and holds out his hand.</p>
<p>Sasha takes it between both of hers. She mouths a word he cannot hear.</p>
<p>(It might be <em>welcome</em>. It might be <em>goodbye</em>.)</p>
<p>As Oscar feels himself--feels his <em>soul</em> tugged back towards the plane of the living, he lets go of Sasha’s hand.</p>
<p>Oscar Wilde wakes up.</p>
<p>He wakes up, not in a way he ever would have expected. Coming back to life is a new experience for him. He savors it, for a moment, just the breathing in and out. </p>
<p>Oscar opens his eyes. Turns his head, and looks down at his palm.</p>
<p>Before, where there was only the paleness of his skin, is now an oil-slick silver. As he watches, it slowly fades to grey, as his soul settles back into his body.</p>
<p>Oscar Wilde closes his eyes, and whispers one last goodbye to Sasha Rackett.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>me: i’m not writing 174 fic in this verse it’s too sad<br/>my brain: haha but what if wilde wakes up alive with a mark from sasha when he never had one before</p>
<p>thanks for reading. take comfort in the fact that if it hurt to read, it hurt me just as much to write.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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